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New Admits to the ICU/RC

She is 16 months old and weighs 15 pounds 2 ounces. She was referred to us from Children’s Health Ministries. She began having mild edema from kwashiorkor a few days ago. Her glucose levels were low when admitted and she was refusing to eat or drink much. Her papa is a teacher at a local school and her mama buys items in bulk and resells them for a profit. She has 5 living siblings at home. The family of 8 lives in a 1 room tent. They do not have running water at their home or a flush toilet, but do have an outhouse. They purchase their water from a vendor that is near their home. The day she was admitted she had not had anything to eat and the day before a plate of rice. The families average monthly income is around $167US. They traveled by motorcycle and taxi for 4 hours to arrive at the clinic. She was started on the F-75 therapeutic milk and then graduated to the medika mamba program.

FANIECA

She is 12 months old and weighs 10 pounds. She first visited the clinic when she was 1 month old and weighted 9 pounds. Her second visit was when she was 6 months old. She then weighted 12 pounds. She was admitted to our outpatient medika mamba program and followed each week for 6 weeks. Her mama abandoned treatment and did not return until this past week. She has kwashiorkor now and will most likely lose a few pounds of “water weight” from the edema. This will mean that she weighted more at 1 month old than at 12 months old. Her mama is pregnant again and this is why she has not been breastfeeding her for several months. (culturally most mother’s will not breastfeed if they are pregnant with another child). Her parents are both farmers and grow beans and bananas in their gardens. The family of 4 lives in a 1 room home made of sticks, mud and tin. They do not have running water at their home or a flush toilet, but do have an outhouse. They get their water from a piped water system that is about a 5 minute walk from their home. The day she was admitted she had some oatmeal to eat and the day before she had nothing. This is the 3rd time in her short life that she has had kwashiorkor. The families average monthly income is around $89US. She was started in the F-75 therapeutic milk and then graduated to the medika mamba program.

FAMILITA

She is 2 years and weighs 16 pounds 2 ounces. She has been showing signs of kwashiorkror for about 1 week now. Her parents are both farmers and grow beans and corn in their gardens. The family of 5 lives in a 2 room home made of rocks, clay and tin. They do not have running water at their home or a flush toilet, not even an outhouse. They get their water from a source that is about a 15 walk from their home. The day she was admitted she had some crackers to eat and the day before she had a plate of rice. The family traveled 6 hours by foot to arrive at the clinic. The families average monthly income is around $220US. She was started on the F-75 therapeutic milk and then graduated to the medika mamba program.

JN RENEL

He is 3 years old and weighs 19 pounds. He was referred to us by Healing Haiti. His parents are both farmers and grow beans, corn and sweet potatoes in their gardens. They do not have running water at their home or a flush toilet, not even an outhouse. They get their water from a source that is about a 15 minute walk from their home. There are 6 living siblings and 1 that died when it was a baby. The family lives in a 2 room home made of rocks, clay and tin. The day he was admitted he did not have anything to eat and the day before he ate a banana. He has been showing signs of kwashiorkor for about 1 month now. He also has a fever, cough and cold. The families average monthly income is around $23US. The family traveled 6 1/2 hours by foot, motorcycle and taxi to arrive at the clinic. His mama states that this is the 6th time he has had kwashiorkor in his short life. He was started on the F-75 therapeutic milk and then graduated to the medika mamba program.

NANPAMIE

She is 3 years old and weighed 24 pounds when admitted. She has since lost 6 pounds of “water weight” from her kwashiorkor. She was admitted with low glucose levels, fever and worms. During the first week that she was here she stopped breathing twice but we were able to resuscitate her. She has 1 other siblings at home and her mama is expecting another child soon. The family lives in a 2 room home made of rocks, clay and tin. They do not have running water at their home or a flush toilet, not even an outhouse. They get their water from a source that is about a 20 minute walk from their home. The day she was admitted she had not had anything to eat and the day before juice and a plate of rice to eat. Her families average monthly income is around $45US. They traveled 7 hours by foot to arrive at the clinic. She was started on the F-75 therapeutic milk and then graduated to the medika mamba program.

GLOUVENS

He is 18 months old and weighs 14 pounds. He has been on the outpatient mamba program for several months now without much change in his weight. His parents stopped coming in Nov and abandoned the program. When they returned this month his weight had decreased and he was beginning to show signs of kwashiorkor. His mama asked if we could admit him to the inpatient program before he got worse. Both of his parents are school teachers. The family of 3 lives in a 1 room home made of sticks, clay and tin. They do not have running water at their home or a flush toilet, but do have an outhouse. They purchase their water from a vendor that lives near their home. He has been losing weight for about 4 months now and has diarrhea, fever and refuses to eat much. The day he was admitted he had milk to drink and the day before soup. The families average monthly income is around $67US. The family traveled about 1 hour by motorcycle to arrive at the clinic. He was started on the F-75 therapeutic milk and then graduated to the medika mamba program.

ASSEME

He is 2 years 4 months old and weights 19 pounds 13 ounces. He is blind in both eyes from Vitamin A deficiency. So sad. His parents are both farmers and grow bean and corn in their gardens. There are 8 living siblings and 4 that have died over the years from fever and malnutrition. The family of 12 lives in a 3 room home made of rocks, clay and tin. They do not have running water at their home or a flush toilet, but do have an outhouse. They get their water from a source that is about a 15 minute walk from their home. The day he was admitted he has nothing to eat and the day before a plate of rice and beans. The families average monthly income is around $39US. They traveled 5 hours by foot to arrive at the clinic. He was started on the F-75 therapeutic milk and then graduated to the medika mamba program.